


The forest

by master_of_random



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Fear, Gen, Misunderstandings, Nonsense, Slenderman - Freeform, and imagining things, disturbing at the beginning, first fic i ever post, hinata being anxious, humor at the end, kags noya and tanaka actually just make an appearance, karasuno is camping, slender fic, takeru is mentioned, the whole thing is really stupid, this is really stupid, this totally makes no sense, tsukki and yamaguchi as well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-18
Updated: 2015-02-18
Packaged: 2018-03-13 14:56:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3385949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/master_of_random/pseuds/master_of_random
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Noya and Tanaka had suggested the first years to go out in the forest at dark “to test their bravery”, it hadn’t seemed that much of a bad idea back then. Actually, the only thought scared Hinata to death, but he couldn’t back off and make himself look like a coward in front of his senpais and most of all in front of Kageyama, now, could he?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The forest

**Author's Note:**

> Sooo here's this nonsense thingy. The first fic I ever posted here.   
> My writing style really sucks, but heh, I tried my best ;-; I hope that with practice I get better...
> 
> Anyway, leave you to the story

Hinata jumped and repressed a scream as he heard something moving among the bushes behind him.

_What the hell was that just now?!?_

He really didn’t feel like turning around to know. He hoped it was just an animal, possibly not a man-eating one.

_Damn!! I can’t panic! I have to find my way back!!_

He had been trying to for about the past half an hour, and he hadn’t succeeded so far.

Great. Just great.

When Noya and Tanaka had suggested the first years to go out in the forest at dark “to test their bravery”, it hadn’t seemed that much of a bad idea back then. Actually, the only thought scared Hinata to death, but he couldn’t back off and make himself look like a coward in front of his senpais and most of all in front of Kageyama, now, could he?

Tsukishima had immediately declined, saying it was dumb. Yamaguchi had agreed with a “Tsukki’s right!”. Kageyama at first had been inclined to agree with Tsukishima for once, until Hinata had teased him about how much of a coward the king was for fearing the dark. “I’m gonna make you take that back, dumbass!” had been the setter’s angry reply, and so the two second years and the two first years had gone into the forest together, each of them equipped with a torch, that didn’t actually light the way up very much. Hinata was scared as hell, but he had tried to control himself not to make it obvious to his teammates and feeling reassured by the fact that, as long as he was with his senpais, nothing bad was going to happen to him. They wouldn’t let anyone or anything in the world harm him.

Therefore, everything was going pretty much smoothly, except for the occasional startles caused by some small movements on the ground or by the sound of some wild animal. Everything was going fine… until he and Kageyama challenged each other to another one of their usual races. For a stupid reason he couldn’t even remember. And without giving it a second thought, he had started running as fast as he could, not even hearing the “hey, you two, don’t go too far!” from Tanaka-senpai, forgetting about his fear and most of all temporarily forgetting that he was in a forest. On the mountains. At night.

When he had thought he had finally beaten Kageyama, he had stopped, turned around and said “well, looks like I win this time, bakageyama”. Just to find no one behind him. At that point, he had panicked and had started to yell his teammates’ names, hoping they would hear him. He had started wandering, hoping to meet his friends, or to find his way back to the camp. All to no avail.

And here he was, still looking, only the torch dully lighting the way in front of him, between the huge trees.

He went on walking, trying not to let fear paralyze him, thinking only of going back to the camp, or finding his senpais… until something on a tree caught his attention. He went closer, to see what the white thing on the darker bark was.

A page, fixed to the wood.

He took it off to examine it better in the feeble light of his torch.

A page, with something written on it. Two words: ‘after you’.

Hinata’s face turned almost as pale as the paper in his hand.

_Who the hell left this here?!?_

Trying to ignore the rising panic, Hinata stuffed the paper in the pocket of his shorts and walked ahead, his steps getting a little faster.

After a few minutes, he found another paper, on another tree. This time it was fixed higher on the wood, so that Hinata had to jump to take it, almost ripping it in two halves in the process. Man, the one who had put it there sure was tall.

Another disturbing message, written in the same calligraphy: ‘always watching you’.

Ok, this was starting to get a little weird. Not to say terribly scary.

He put the second paper in his pocket and went on. Until he saw _that_.

Between the trees in front of him, the dim torch light barely illuminated something black and white. And tall. And the _thing_ was moving. He wouldn’t have been able to tell what it was. He just could guess it had a human-like body. And, hell, the _thing_ was so tall. And it made no sounds as it moved on the ground, on the fallen leaves.

As soon as Hinata saw the _thing_ moving, he started running in the opposite direction with a bloodcurdling scream. He ran, and ran, and ran, too scared to look at his back to see if the _thing_ was gone.

_What the hell was that?!?_ he kept asking himself, searching in his memory for any detail that could have answered his question. Papers with weird messages written on them, a black and white, human-like tall thing, in a dark forest at night…

And then, suddenly, he remembered. He remembered about that game he had played some months before, that had him not being able to sleep for three days in a row; he remembered having looked it up on the internet, having found the photos and all the stories about it. Someone had even made a disturbing song out of it.

_What was it called again..?_

The Slenderman.

Hinata almost froze on the spot at the realization, but a moment later the very same thought kept him running, running to escape from the unescapable. Because, as far as he had read online, no one had ever escaped the Slenderman. People who were unlucky enough to meet him just disappeared in the dark of the forest, without leaving a single track. So far, no one knew if the Slenderman killed his victims or rather teleported them to another dimension. Either way, Hinata didn’t like it. At all.

He remembered reading that the Slenderman’s usual victims were children.

_N-no!! What if I attracted him because I’m short?!?_

His fear was growing by the second.

And on another tree, he found the third page. He took this one as well, snatching it from the wood without stopping his run.

‘can’t run’.

Again, he didn't stop. He couldn’t. This was a life or death situation.

_How many were the pages again?!? Oh, right: eight! I suppose there are eight pages then… if I manage to collect them all, will he leave me alone?_

He wasn’t all that sure about it though. He highly doubted the Slenderman would have just let anyone go after they had collected the eight pages. But had he any other choice? No. He had to give it a try.

Fourth page: ‘behind you’.

At that point, he saw something pale moving in front of him, on the left. With another scream, he immediately turned right.

_Oh, no! He’s closer now!_

Oh, right: the Slenderman could teleport himself. That was what made him deadly and impossible to escape from.

Fifth page: ‘I really really hate’- the sentence was incomplete.

_Wait, this makes no sense!_

He didn’t dwell much on it though, since he was too busy running as far as possible from the _thing_ that was now at his right.

Meanwhile, his mind was wondering about all the possible things that the Slenderman could do to his victims.

_Maybe he just kills people? But how? Quickly? Slowly? Is it painful?!? How does he even do that?? Does he strangle people? Or stabs them and waits for them to bleed to death? Or poisons them? Burns them alive?!? Or maybe he doesn’t kill them? He teleports them to his dimension? Does he kill them there?!? Or does he keep them as slaves?!? Or what else?!?_

Sixth page: nothing except for a huge ‘X’.

_What is this now?!?_

He ran ahead, hoping to find the remaining pages soon.

_Only two left, only two left! I can make it! I hope it works…_

He saw the tree on which the seventh page was fixed when the torch illuminated it. He ran straight towards it. There, he was almost there…

When he was less than a meter away from the tree, his arm stretched out to grab the page, the tall figure dressed in black and white came out from behind the tree and grabbed him. Hinata screamed, trying- to no avail- to free himself.

During the struggle, the torch fell to the ground and the dull light went off. It was complete darkness now.

_It’s over_ , Hinata tought, _this is how Hinata Shouyou disappears… to never come back again._

He braced himself for he didn’t even know what- whatever terrible thing was to come.

And he was fairly surprised- relieved- when the light of another torch lightened up his face.

In the light, he was able to finally give a good look at who was in front of him. Tall, of course, but nothing near the three meters the slenderman was supposed to be; pale…? Not really. Dressed in white and black, yes. Wavy, brown hair, and eyes of the same color; a sweet smile on his face. Definitely not the pale, faceless Slenderman he was expecting.

<<Chibi-chan! Why have you been running around and screaming all this time? And most of all, why are you alone in the forest? It’s almost midnight! Don’t you know forests are dangerous places at night for shrimpies like you?>>.

<<T-the Grand King?!? You’re not the Slenderman!>>.

_Thanks God!_

Oikawa laughed, letting go of Hinata’s arm.

<<Is that why you were running away and screaming every time I tried to get close you? Did you mistake me for the Slenderman?>>.

<<Y-yeah…>> Hinata admitted, embarrassed <<y’know, the colors you’re wearing… and you’re tall… and y’know, my torch didn’t light up very well, and… but the pages… what about the pages??>>.

<<Oh. See, I’m on vacation here close to your team’s camp with my parents and my nephew; he insisted for me to organize a treasure hunt for him and so I wrote these things down and scattered them in the forest… they were supposed to contain hints, but I got carried away and I filled them with scary stuff… a small joke to scare my nephew a little, you see>>. And he laughed again.

Hinata didn’t find it funny at all, but now the whole thing was starting to make sense. Or at least, that explained the ‘X’, he supposed it showed where the treasure was hidden. But still, one didn’t make sense…

Hinata took the ‘I really really hate’ page from his pocket and showed it to the older boy.

<<Then… what’s the meaning of this?>>.

Oikawa started it for a few seconds, and then chuckled, a hand behind his head. <<Well, I suppose that’s just a page from my diary I ripped, thinking there was nothing written on it…>>. He sighed. <<Well, looks like I’ll have to fix these pages all over again>>.

Hinata winced. <<I-I’m sorry…>>.

<<Don’t mind, don’t mind, chibi-chan! It’s fine! But then again… what are you doing here, all alone?>>.

<<Well… I was with some friends when I got lost… and I couldn’t find them, nor my way back to the camp…>>.

<<Well, since I have to make up for the big fright I gave you, I can bring you back to the camp if you want>>.

<<But do you even know the way?>>.

<<Of course I do! You see, it’s not the first time I’ve been here. Ever since I was a kid, I’ve come on vacation here quite often. I can orientate pretty easily>>.

<<But my friends?? They’re probably still looking for me>>.

<<Don’t worry; they’ll eventually realize you’ve found your way back to the camp and they’ll come back as well>>.

Convinced by his words, Hinata accepted the third year’s help, took his torch from the ground and followed him.

On the way, they mostly stayed silent, until Hinata decided to finally speak up, to clear some of his remaining doubts once and for all.

<<… Oikawa-san, why were out in the forest at night?>>.

<<Oh? Well, you see, I love to take walks at night. It actually helps me when I have troubles sleeping>>.

<<What?!? Aren’t you scared?!?>>.

The other shook his head, smiling.

<<Not at all. I actually love the peace and quiet of the night in this place. It calms me down>>.

<<B-but didn’t you say forests are dangerous at night?>>.

Oikawa laughed. <<Only for small shrimpies like you!>> he said, ruffling the orange hair, and causing Hinata to pout. Then he was serious again. <<I think I can defend myself pretty well, anyway>>.

<<Really?>>.

<<Yeah>>.

<<What if you were to be attacked by the Slenderman then?>>.

A smirk appeared on Oikawa’s face, making him look scary in the dim light of the torch.

<<Oh, I think I could deal with him>> he considered. <<I’m pretty much sure of it>> he added in a whisper.

<<If you say so...>> Hinata mumbled.

They stayed silent for another few minutes, until Hinata spoke again.

<<One last thing>> he said <<Why were all the papers fixed so high on the trees? How will your nephew reach them?>>.

Oikawa laughed again.

<<That’s the point of it! He will have to work hard to get them!>>.

<<Oikawa-san, you’re the worst!>>.

**Author's Note:**

> ... ok, this totally made no sense. It was supposed to be funny in the end...  
>  Here's what happens when you play too much Slenderman like I do. I'm obsessed, lol.
> 
> But seriously, Oikawa really is the only human being on Earth that can beat the Slenderman IMO. I already have all the scene in my mind... maybe I should write it as well? I've already drawn it, lol.  
> The 'I really really hate' page has probably something to do with Ushijima... just a feel.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you liked this... thing??


End file.
